Wallmount sink faucet backsplash ideas plus tips for buying wallmount faucets

I think wallmount sink faucets are fantastic. There are more and more great designs coming out all the time. As condos and houses are getting more pricey, the bathrooms often get smaller. Which is not so great for us makeup and product junkies. We need all the countertop space we can get. That`s where wall faucets come in. (They are especially great for tiny powder rooms!) Lower down in the post I've provided a few tips I think you should keep in mind when choosing a wall faucet (you have to plan out in advance a bit more then when you buy a countertop style faucet). But first lets look at some backsplash styles!

I love the idea of having the wallmount faucet come right out of a mirror like in the photo above, I think it is super stylish, super chic and pretty cheap too! Of course over time you'll get some water damage to the mirror, but that adds character darling!

 The next style is as straight forward as you can get, nothing fancy, just the wall faucet coming out of the wall without any backsplash.This faucet is really beautiful and I love the idea of having the faucet handle on the counter, uber chic, and oh so practical since you won't get your wall wet (but try to find a faucet set up like this - good luck! They are hard to find and when you do they are priced for Royalty). Since it's such an ornate faucet and because the wall won't get wet from dripping hands reaching to turn off the water, it works. However, there is something to be said about taking the time to add a little more Oomph by creating a nice backsplash for your sink wall faucet. I picture a beautiful multi-coloured antique patterned tiles backsplash looking gorgeous with this sink. (tiles like the ones in this post would look nice I think.)

I find this next bathroom so light, airy and refreshing. 

Please click the "Click to see more" to see it (this is a really long

post so I decided to put a page break)

Hi! I'm glad you clicked to keep on reading!

Now look at this backsplash idea; the strip of bagette style light green glass

tiles creates a beautiful backdrop to the wallmount faucet.

Notice the amount of space left between the top of the faucet and the mirror. That's

an area you can play with. In this case, a little space looks nice, often though, I

like alot more backsplash showing above the faucet, but it depends on

the look of the bathroom and how tall you want your mirror to be.

Here`s a unique granite vanity countertop and backsplash. It looks like the stone

was broken into pieces then turned into a backsplash. Very original. This time there is

a few inches of backsplash above the faucet. I think those extra inches creates

a more dynamic looking backspash then if they had cut the top edge closer to

the faucet like in the previous photo. It really showcases the faucet nicely.

This bright green bathroom is probably too over the top for most people, however, we can get inspired by the faucet wall mount design. To add more storage space they built a nice little ledge behind the faucet, it doesn`t take up much more room and it adds alot of needed counter space. Good thinking design-pro! (I`ve seen that car rental commercial where they say  ``way to go business-pro``, way too many times! A business friend of mine brought some donuts the other day and offered me one, I said ``thanks business pro``, now we are all going around calling each other business pros for silly things, cracks me up (but you gotta wink and click your finger to make it look really professional ;)).

.

Now for some tips on selecting a wall mount faucet (you can skip over all the text in purple if you just want to see more backsplash ideas. I won't cry too much.)

Wall faucets are a bit more difficult to install then countertop faucets. If you didn't have a wall faucet in your bathroom before, your plumber will have to make some adjustments to your plumbing which will add to your installation bill. btw, all the components necessary to install the faucet should come with the faucet when you buy it. Double check with the salesperson, but all good quality faucets I've seen provide all the hardware you need (well except for the wood you need to screw the hardware on but that's a minor expense)(Oh, and your plumber should be able to reuse most of the plumbing that's already in your bathroom (if you are keeping your vanity in the same area as before). They'll have to do a few cuts and alterations and possibly buy some joint pieces but they can glue these to the old pipes. Don't let them scam you into buying all new pipes! And if you are doing the job yourself, it's really not that hard and the step by step installation instructions are usually found on the product site.

That said, there are a few things you need to keep in mind when selecting your sink wall faucet.

The first and most important is the length of the faucet itself. I'm talking about the spout the water comes out of. There are 2 common faucet lengths: 6 inches long and 9 inches long, but depending on the design of your faucet it can be any number of lengths. You absolutely need to write down this length. Double check that you wrote down the correct length - you want to write down the length of the part of the faucet that is exposed, not the part of the faucet you don't see. For example, in the green bathroom above, the faucet length I would write down would be from where the faucet meets the green wall to the end of the faucet where the water comes out. If you are in the store you can measure it yourself or even easier you can go on the product site and look up the product dimensions spec diagram and it should be shown on the diagram. (alot of these are badly done, so if it doesn't clearly show from which point to which point is included in the measurement, double check it by measuring it. Don't get overwhelmed by all these details, it's not hard, I just want to provide you will a few good pointers!)

So why do you need this measurement?

Because you will need to make sure that the length of your faucet is long enough for the backsplash style you want and for the sink you select. I can't stress this enough. If there is a sink you are dying to get, don't buy the faucet before you check that it works with that sink.Why is this important you ask? Because you want the water flow from the faucet to hit the center of the drain so that there is the least amount of water splashing back as possible. Remember, your wallmount faucet will typically be higher up (a nice height is 12 inches from the countertop) then a counter top mounted faucet so there could be more splash. You want your faucet to be like a gold medal olympic diver, in his sexy speedo, when he enters the water perfectly there is hardly any splash (at least that's what I'm looking at, maybe you were looking at something else and never noticed), so you want your faucet to drop the water into the center of the drain so there is as little splash as possible too. You can decide if you want to hang a gold medal around your faucet's neck or not.

Now that you have the faucet length you can see if it works with the sink and vanity set up you want. So to do this easily it's time to draw yourself a diagram. Trust me, it's the easiest way.

Get out a piece of paper and your measuring tape again and get ready to take a few measurements.

Here's an example I did for you:

 (if it's hard to read, click on it and it will expand, then press the Esc button (or the X in the top right hand corner of the pop up window) when you're done to return to the post):

I know I am not the best drawer (you should have seen the 1st version), so, to

recap my diagram:

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HOW TO CALCULATE THE LENGTH OF THE WALL FAUCET YOU NEED TO BUY:

the measurements you will need are:

1. measure from the center of the sink drain to the outer edge of the rim of the sink (if it's an undermount sink you won't have a rim)(or calculate the measurement from the sink spec diagram, but it's usually easier to do it yourself)

2. the little space of countertop between the sink outer rim edge and the backsplash. How to know how much space this is? Take your countertop width, subtract the amount of space you are leaving between the front of the sink and the front of the countertop then also subtract the width of the sink from that total and this is how much space you have left.

3. (and this one is so easy to forget to do, and it's usually a small amount so you think you don't need to, but even an inch can make a difference) the thickness of your backsplash. (ex. that funky granite backsplash 2 photos up is probably 3/4" thick so you'd add 3/4".)

4. forget about measuring it yourself and hire a designer! Not! You can do this Design Pro, wink, snap.

Add all these numbers up.

Compare this number to the length of your faucet.

Is it long enough?

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What if you still screw up and bought too short a faucet? Well you can always reduce the space between your backsplash and sink, front edge space, change sinks or reduce the thickness of your backsplash. What if you've done all this and it is still off. Don't cry. It is not that huge a deal, you will just end up with a bit more water splashing on your counters because the water is not hitting the drain. Not that big a deal, but please don't use it as an excuse not to do the calculation ('cause if you buy a 6" faucet and you really need 9" then you will be sorry!)

With bathroom products often you can't return them or if you can there is a pretty steep restocking fee (it can be around 25-30% of the price, so that's a painful amount to pay for a mistake you could have avoided. At that restocking penalty you could have bought the more expensive faucet you wanted in the first place!)

Ok, this is getting super long and is putting me, and probably you to sleep (I really doubt anyone is sitting on the edge of their seat eating a bag of doritos reading this) so I will wrap up this how to section with just 2 more pointers.

Give alot of consideration to the depth of your sink  and the height of your sink. Like I said, wall faucets will splash more, so as much as I love the look of the super modern shallow sinks, they aren't as practical when it comes to water splashing or for soaking your bikini in, or speedo if you're a sexy european guy, for that matter (btw, if your water is splashing everywhere and it is driving you nuts, you can have your plumber reduce the water pressure. Your water flow won't be as nice but you won't be whiping up water either, so it can be worth it.) Look at all the sinks in these photos, what do they all have in common? They are deep!

You should also draw out a front view of your sink, faucet, backsplash and mirror placement with, yuck, you guessed it, MEASUREMENTS! If you choose a tall sink, your faucet is going to have to be higher up the wall, so then your mirror is going to be bumped up too. If you wanted the look of huge mirrors in your bathroom, you need to keep this in mind. There are alot of really pretty tall bowl sinks out there, that alot of countertop faucets are just to short to match up with so going with a wall mount faucet gives you more flexibility on sink height. However, you still want a sink that is not so tall that you feel like you are reaching down to pick up the soap and that you can't get a good look at your cute outfit in the mirror because the mirror has to be so high up to accommodate for having to put the faucet higher. Notice that most of the photos I featured show under mount sinks...

Ok, I lied one last thing. Remember I said 12 inches is a nice height for a wall mount faucet right? I hope you are saying, wait girl! It depends how tall your sink is to know if that measurement is good. Correct Design Pro, correct, wink and a double snap for you. Another thing I like to do too is, on installation day, stand in front of your vanity, put your counter top sink on there if possible (have someone hold it so it doesn't fall and break and you send me mean emails), walk up to the sink as if you are going to wash your hands, put your hands out at the height you feel comfortable. Measure that spot! Add a bit of space between that spot and the end of your faucet and that should be a great height (ok, you can only do this if you are tiling and don't mind running out for more tiles or don't have a backsplash, you can't really do this on installation day if you are having a big piece of marble, so if you're not too lazy set up a mock vanity with a dresser and a box or bowl if you are an intense perfectionist and want to be 100% sure of your height). I did this with a faucet,then read the instructions and the comfort height I had selected was the same height the manufacturer recommended. I'm average height, so I would have been fine with the manufacturers suggested height, but if you are taller or shorter, then doing your own comfort test can make a big difference to you. You should also test out your comfort height when choosing your sink height to counter top.

One teeny tiny last thing, I won't go into big detail though - if you are making a thicker backsplash, such as ones with shelves (like the green one above and an exotic one bellow) or thick stone, you might run into a problem where the backend of the faucet & handle are too short. I did a marble backsplash and the hardware was just long enough to fit through the marble to attach the handle, phewf! 

I think I've covered the most important things I wanted to. If there is anything you think should be added please leave notes in the comments to help out everyone else. If I wake up in a cold sweat one night remembering something I should have written, I will do another post on wall mount faucet installation tips.

Now lets get back to looking at pretty bathroom photos...

This wall mount faucet makes me think of Ikea. Love the two different colour handles.

Look how good wall mount faucets look with dual basin sinks. So pretty, and so much

more counter space is saved by placing the faucets on the wall. To see more washstand vanities, check out this post I did on them here.

I really like this next back splash design. I love the seamless look of the built in back splash of this modern troth sink. The rustic timber walls in this bathroom are really interesting to look at, it gives the bathroom a more masculine vibe, but if it were my bathroom, I`d rip out all that character and go with chic plain white walls to give this bathroom a spa like look and feel. Love, love, love this beautiful mirrored vanity and crema marfil troth sink and back splash combo. I can see it looking gorgeous in a luxury condo bathroom.

Here's a nice exotic backsplash with a huge backsplash ledge. It would

look spectacular at night lined with lite candles and scattered red flower petals.

Don't forget to think about the top edge of your back splash. Nobody said it has to be straight. You can make it curved, wavy, whatever you want. Make it

a show piece like this one.

Okidoki, I don't think I forgot anything I wanted to cover here. If I did though, I'll do another post (I have a bunch more wall mount faucet photos, but this post was getting way too long as it is!). Again, If you want to add any other useful tips in selecting a wall faucet, please leave them in the comments or anything else you'd like to say, such as how many run on sentences were in this post! Thanks!

images via: ad, veranda, houzz, jeff andrews design, archiDe, bhg, marieclaire maison, design sponge, elle decor, house beautiful, casa.com.br, marieclaire maison